How can the salience of ethnicity in Rwandan and Burundian politics be overcome? How can this salience be approached analytically? And why, exactly, is it that it is potentially conflict-prone? This book gives answers to these questions on the basis of what Rwandan and Burundian interviewees expressed as taken for granted and real. In particular, it... more...

Zanzibar, an island off the East African coast, with its Muslim and Swahili population, offers rich material for this study of identity, religion, and multiculturalism. This book focuses on the phenomenon of spirit possession in Zanzibar Town and the relationships created between humans and spirits; it provides a way to apprehend how society is constituted... more...